Friday 27 March 2015

More ERBian Allusions

SM Stirling, The Sky People (New York, 2006).

See here.

If Marc had called his greatwolf pup not Nobs but Woola, then the ERBian reference would have been unmistakable since Woola was John Carter's calot.

One of the Allied blimps on Venus is called the Vepaja which sounds Indian and therefore made me think of The Peshawar Lancers, where dirigibles are also used, although I did not immediately google "Vepaja." However, the Vepaja's sister-ship is the Duare and that is recognizably ERBian, the equivalent of saying "Dejah Thoris" in a Martian/Barsoomian context. I did then google "Vepaja" and was reminded of its meaning, while also learning that it has a different significance for Doctor Who. Sf writers might consciously or unconsciously copy words from earlier works.

It is authentic that, if space explorers found a habitable and inhabited Venus, then they would use ERBian terminology while exploring it. One fiction appropriately refers to another. Surprisingly, I remember some parallels between Poul Anderson and ERB but not any direct references by the former to the latter.

5 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Hi, Paul!

I do have a vague recollection of readig in one of Anderson's stories that a town or city on Mars was named "Burroughs," obviously in honor of ERB!

I've also been trying to track down the text in the Barsoomian stories which discussed finances and economics. I KNOW it's there! Frustrating, how difficult it can be to find what an author said!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
Maybe in A PRINCESS...
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Possibly! I've been paging thru A FIGHTING MAN OF MARS for that text. Because a website devoted to ERB mentioned economics being mentioned in that story. I hope to find out!

Sean

Paul Shackley said...

Sean,
I think I remember something about Barsoomian currency at least in A PRINCESS...
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Then I'll have to page thru PRINCESS if I don't find the text I'm looking for in FIGHTING. Dang it, I actually DISCUSSED this very same text in an email thread years ago! But I don't remember the title of the story!

Briefly, it was a discussion about how debts were paid and checks (or cheques) were backed.

Sean